Ply wood lessons please?

I keep reading about people using plywood for cabinet carcasses. Where I live there is one grade of ply wood; Construction Grade. I do my best to stay away from it. You have to purchase it a couple months before you want to start a project because it has to out gas. I have to put it in a different building. I am not kidding, it is that bad. I could not even imagine using it on a piece of furniture because even after a couple months it stinks, just not as bad.

I read about people using different veneered ply woods and wonder about:A-where they get itB-Is the veneered side the only difference between the stuff you folks are using and the construction grade crap I have around here.

There’s vast amounts of information available on the Internet about the different types of plywood. A bit of Googling should help you out.

A) I’m curious where you live. It must be awful not to have ready access to quality plywood. All the big box stores carry better plywood than what you describe, although they also carry lots of crap. I’m in the Los Angeles area, and I buy plywood from various lumber yards. It’s everywhere here.

B) No. You have hardwood and softwood plywood. You have veneer core or solid wood core, or mdf core, or combinations of veneer and mdf core, etc. And the quality of the cores varies great. In general, you get what you pay for. For furniture grade plywood, I wouldn’t expect to pay less than $60 for one 3/4” sheet. It goes up from there.

HomeDepot carries various types/grades of plywood – not all stores carry same variety but worth checking. that said – their quality is so-so. lumberyards that market to cabinet makers will also have quality plywood. lumber yarrds that market to construction (2×4 and the likes) more than likely will not.

plywood grades varies not only in the external ply, but also in the number of plies – their thickness, and their material as well as the quality of those plies and how many or little voids are in the plywood (good plywood should be void free)

If you live anywhere near Powell Lake in the Page vicinity that is some really dry country up there. Can see why you need to let the plywood get acclimated. There is a listing on google for Page lumber.

My suggestion would be to find a supplier and purchase enough for future projects so it will be ready when you need it. Of course this isn’t ideal solution, just a suggestion.

Doesn’t seem to much in the way of towns or cities in that area. Canyons and parklands.

Obviously that is quite a distance for you to travel for good wood, but it might be worth the trip. You could wet your whistle at the Lumber Yard Brewing Company or drown your sorrows if that’s how the trip turns out.